Posts Tagged ‘called out’

“More people will come if they think we’ll have punch and pie!” ~ South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut (1999)

I am going to share with you a tale of humor and humility.

I suppose that I would have to admit that with my love for live music, I’ve been kind of a super troll lately towards local bands whenever they are promoting/announcing an upcoming show.

They are only doing what they can in order to get people into the venues. It’s their job. I know that. But whenever I see something like that, I always ask if there will be “punch and pie”.

This past weekend I went out to see several bands play live. One of which was “Skunkfest 2018”. Ten glorious rocking bands at one venue. One of those bands is “Inch of Dark”.

In the days leading up to the event, the band would just promote, promote, promote all over social media. And I kept messing with them about having “punch and pie”.

Well, I think the promotions worked because there were so many people there. It was so hot outside in the Texas summer heat that I wanted to go back inside, but there were so many bodies inside that it drove me almost crazy.

I had received a message several hours from one of the band members of Inch of Dark, and they said that they had a surprise for me when I showed up.

Inch of Dark wasn’t playing. They called me out to the max!

As I arrived at “Skunkfest 2018” I saw so many people that I knew that it was hard to say hello to all of them.

Then I saw members of Inch of Dark and they began to laugh and said “Wait here!”

They LITERALLY bought a pie and a bottle of Hawaiian Punch!! And they had saved me some. (I do wonder what happened to the rest of it.)

I was busted….

I was grateful for the surprise, even if it was a joke.

Inch of Dark is a bunch of great guys. And I think even greater music. But I warn you, don’t mess with them because they will mess with you right back!!

“Point me out the happy man and I will point you out either egotism, selfishness, evil – or else an absolute ignorance.”~ Graham Greene

I was sitting there one evening in the passenger seat of someone’s vehicle, very frequently looking down at my cell phone and responding to text messages that were coming in faster than I could respond, based on the fact that an event was unfolding before me as I sat there in the darkness looking out at a back door of a club. My only goal was to “watch the car” as they had put it. The doors were all locked, the keys were in the ignition still and I was jamming out to music of my choice while I waited.

Very long moments had gone by before I was startled by a pounding on the window from the driver to let them back inside of the vehicle.

From that moment on until the end of the evening, I was chewed out that I “was not doing what I was told to do.” Instead my nose was uncharacteristically buried in my cell phone.

I explained I was getting frequent updates on a situation that they knew about. And that I kept looking up from time to time and saw nothing to be alarmed over. Nothing “bad” ever happened to the vehicle. I was able to “watch the car” without having to put eyeballs on it 100% of the time.

Before I go on, I will say this: the law of averages is most likely on Draiman’s side. What he said was in fact true. It is rude. However, for those of us who weren’t there… those of us who aren’t this person that he so heroically called out, we honestly don’t know what exactly was going on. All we know is what we get from Draiman’s side of things that is muddled in frustration.

I’ve lost count how many times I’ve been in conversation with someone and at some point during that conversation, their attention went immediately and straight to their phone. And yes, that is rude.

But this woman, whomever she is that Draiman bawled out, was asked (more or less) what she was doing that was more important. The problem is, is that in these situations, audience members are NEVER allowed the chance to respond in order to defend themselves and/or their actions. By the time the obvious rhetorical question came out of his mouth, the entire audience reacted against her and therefore she was unable to answer or respond back.

This woman either had her own emergency happening at the exact time she was there to enjoy the show. Or perhaps she was giving directions for more fans to arrive. It could have been any number of things that was going on.

My mother and my grandmother both taught me when I was young that if someone is doing something that you don’t like – don’t look at them. Maybe Draiman should’ve heeded those words as there were certainly other people to concentrate upon rather than one woman who had her face buried into a cell phone.

One CAN enjoy music without using their eyes. However a concert is supposed to be both audibly and visually stimulating. At least in my experiences, they are.

Like I said, the averages are on Draiman’s side. This woman could have simply been rude as he proclaimed. But we don’t know that for sure. We don’t know what she was doing. And the sad thing is, is that we will never know! Not unless this woman comes out publicly to defend herself. And I have doubts that she will.

And these things (no matter how rude we find them) are going to happen.